Daily devotions for families with school-aged children

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Pride and a Foolish Law

Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever!All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.”Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. Daniel 6:6-9 ESV

Blessed is the man who makesthe Lord his trust,who does not turn to the proud,to those who go astray after a lie!You have multiplied, O Lord my God,your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;none can compare with you!I will proclaim and tell of them,yet they are more than can be told. Psalm 40:4-5 ESV

Reflection:

Once a little frog saw a big ox in a field, and he went home and told his father about it. His father wasn’t impressed. “I can make myself just as big as an ox if I want to!” said the bullfrog, and he started to puff himself up. As he blew himself out, the little frog kept saying that the ox was much bigger than that. So the frog kept puffing himself full of air until he burst like a big balloon!

King Darius was as proud and foolish as this bullfrog. He thought he had enough power and wisdom to take care of everyone’s needs in his whole kingdom, and that the people didn’t need any other government official or any god to help them. The leaders of the government used the king’s pride to trick him into making a very foolish law. The law said that no one could ask anyone for any help except for the king–not any other person and not any god–for thirty days. King Darius probably thought that by signing this law he would show everyone in the empire how important and powerful he was, so he signed the law. He didn’t realize that it was all a trick to trap Daniel and to get rid of him.

We all sometimes get tricked by our pride to think that we can take care of ourselves and handle things on our own without God’s help. But we need God every day, and we really can’t do anything without him, even though we often don’t think about the way he takes care of us and provides for us. Most importantly, we couldn’t ever win our way back to God after our foolishness and pride separated us from him. We sometimes start to think that we can follow God’s ways and be good enough to be his children on our own, but we can’t. We are sinful, and the only way back to God is through Jesus, our Savior. Jesus came to die on the cross for us so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be God’s people. We can always trust Jesus for forgiveness and for everything we need to go God’s way, now and always.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, please help us to always trust you and know that you give us everything we need. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.